Training Session: Can I Have Something for the Pain?
- Preparing for and Improving the Birth Experience

Faith Pegahmagabow

CHRs can offer expectant mothers a lot of support and can help
women prepare for the birth experience. Labour support for
expectant mothers should be unconditional. It should be
non-judgemental; the support person should listen and not tell
her own story. Support means not offering advice but offering a
handkerchief, a touch and caring. Labour support helps women
understand what they are feeling rather than make feelings go away.
It is to help a woman identify her options, and not tell her what
options to choose.

It is such a gift to be able to help each other to ease the pain
associated with birth and help make labour much easier. The workshop
focused on comfort measures during pregnancy and demonstrates
ways that a woman can be made more comfortable through labour and
birth. Customs and traditions for birth and labour were also shared
between the group members.

Comfort measures include: rituals, relaxation and visualization,
labour positions, breathing techniques, massage and eating during labour.

Rituals
-Any coping methods or strategies that a woman can use during
labour. This can include massage, breathing, slow dancing, vocalization,
special people or visualization.

Relaxation and Visualization
-Must be practiced during pregnancy. These techniques can
be done lying down, sitting in a chair or leaning on her support person.
Having a warm bath or shower also helps to relax a woman in labour.

Labour positions
-Can include walking, standing, kneeling, leaning on a bed, chair
or exercise ball or against a partner, squatting using a stool, or sitting
on a toilet.
-Most labour positions will require a supportive partner to help for
balance.
-Gravity also plays an important role in labour and birth. It is not
good to have a woman lie down for long periods; the baby needs gravity
to come out of the birth canal.

Massage
-Light massage can be very comforting when the woman is
having a contraction.
-Keep in mind that some people do not like to be touched so when
providing labour support, we must be mindful of this so we are not invasive.
-Acupressure, heat and cold sensations are also effective comfort
measures during labour. Heat can increase blood flow to an area, increase
metabolism and pain threshold and decrease muscle spasms.
Cold decreases blood flow to an area, and decreases the transmission of pain.

Eating during Labour
-Helps to keep energy levels up during labour.
-Eating can be comforting during labour.
-It is also important to keep fluid levels up during labour by
drinking enough water or other liquids.

Pregnancy and labour can be made much more comfortable by learning
effective techniques to help relax and soothe expectant mothers. In her birth
plan the woman may decide the most comfortable position to be in, what
breathing techniques to use and how much interaction she wants from her
birthing partner in terms of massage or support. While these things may
change during the course of labour, having a well thought out birth plan
helps a woman decide the course of action that will make her labour as
comfortable as possible.